--
April 07--Kansas City police are investigating whether they need to tighten procedures after a police dog recently bolted from its handler and attacked an innocent woman on her front stoop.
The dog bit the 56-year-old woman on her head and buttocks and broke her eyeglasses. The victim, who already feared dogs, required two staples on her head. She also suffered several puncture wounds on her buttocks.
"It's a sad thing," said Capt. Randy Jacobs, who oversees the canine section. "We hate that this happened."
The incident occurred about 12:20 p.m. Sunday in the 4300 block of Chelsea Avenue. Police said the handler and dog, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois named Eros, were searching for a gun that a robbery suspect might have dropped. Police already had found a magazine nearby.
The handler had Eros on a long leash, Jacobs said. They had searched outside the victim's house and the backyard and were making their way around the other side of the house when the woman came out her front door.
She stepped onto her small concrete stoop while talking on the telephone with her daughter.
Eros apparently heard her and bolted for her, tearing the leash out of the handler's hand. The officer suffered cuts on his right palm and wrist, police said.
The woman saw the dog coming around the corner of her house and scurried to get inside, Jacobs said. But the dog caught her before she could open her door.
A neighbor heard the dog barking and looked outside and saw her neighbor on the ground. By then, the officers already had pulled the dog off of her.
The handler called for an ambulance and followed it to the hospital. He wanted to arrange for an officer to give the victim a ride after her treatment, but her daughter picked her up instead.
The Kansas City Star was unable to contact the victim, who is staying with a relative.
The Police Department has 12 dogs, each trained to perform general patrol work and one specialty area -- either finding narcotics or bombs. The dogs can apprehend suspects, track fugitives or missing people, find dropped knives or guns or other evidence, and search buildings or large areas.
Jacobs said police were conducting a review of the incident to determine whether they need to change procedures or training.
But Jacobs said he knew one thing already: "The officer didn't have hold of him (Eros) good enough."
The 37-year-old officer has been a handler for seven years. Eros has been on duty for about 1 1/2 years.
The victim told police she came outside because she saw the police activity -- but not the police dog -- in her neighborhood and she wanted to know if they needed anything. She told police she was scared of dogs and that she wouldn't have come outside if she knew the dog was nearby.
Jacobs said police would be looking at whether officers should try to notify residents in such situations, but he said the primary issue is still for handlers to maintain a grip on their dog's leash.
Police dogs wear choke collars, but handlers typically use the "dead ring" on the collar instead of the "live ring" when searching for an item to avoid restricting the dog's airflow.
"We're going to look at everything to make sure the public's safe and the officers are safe," Jacobs said.
Police dogs in Kansas City have bitten officers, Jacobs said, especially if officers approached too quickly after an apprehension. But the last time a police dog bit a citizen who wasn't a suspect was in the early 1990s, he said, during a canine demonstration in the Northland.
That day, several children were petting a dog when a man leaned over the top of the dog. The dog snapped at the man, biting him on the cheek -- all while kids continued to stroke the dog, Jacobs said.
"The only thing we could attribute it to was he was towering over the top of the dog and the dog felt threatened," Jacobs said. He said officers now warn people not to stand over the dogs or reach over them.
"This just brings to the forefront that anything can happen and that our handlers need to be cautious of their surroundings."
To reach Christine Vendel, call 816-234-4438 or send email to [email protected].
